Tag Archives: Lord’s Supper

The Table of the Lord: Third suggestion

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My third suggestion: re-establish a table atmosphere. It’s the table of the Lord. It’s a common meal. It’s communion. Sharing. Time to be aware of the body of the Lord, His gathered body.

Some would say that’s impossible while sitting in pews, but I disagree. I think we have to change some of our ideas about what “decently and in order” means; actually, I know we need to change those ideas. Merely reading that phrase in context will tell you that.

At table, you look at your fellow table participants. You interact with them. Can you imagine someone at a family meal sitting with their head down and eyes closed the entire time? Would you think there was a healthy family relationship there?

We are at table. Together. Let’s look at one another. Smile. Be aware of the covenant bond that joins us. Be aware of the unifying moment we are sharing. The Corinthians missed the boat on this to such an extreme they had to be reprimanded. We speak of gathering around the table; let’s live it.

The Table of the Lord: Second suggestion

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My second suggestion is take the Lord’s Supper off the clock. Let’s emphasize spirituality over efficiency, getting closer to God over beating the clock. It’s one of those suggestions that people say, “Nice thought, but it’s not practical in our culture.” Hmmm… how many things in our Christian life are we willing to say THAT about? No, don’t answer… I don’t want to know.

Here’s the extreme example. A friend of mine was at the back of an auditorium as they finished with communion. One deacon announced: “Seven minutes… our best time yet!”

That’s an extreme, but it’s not an uncommon attitude. Time spent on the Lord’s Supper is time away from preaching, or worse yet, time away from the first quarter of the NFL game. Lunch might be delayed. Our nap time could be cramped. We might not make softball or bowling or the soccer tournament.

We need to get over it. Can you serve God and the clock? Is it worth “growing” a church if we have to compromise spiritual activities to do it? Is worship about pleasing us or pleasing God?

In our attempts to streamline the Lord’s Supper, we’ve shown our true feelings toward it. It’s something we feel obligated to do, not because of a heartfelt desire, but because in some legalistic way we feel like we have to do it every Sunday. It’s not important enough to make time for, but we’ve got to do it. Punch the time card. Sign the roll book.

Enough! If we aren’t willing to make time for the Lord’s Supper, why bother taking it at all? As we look at ways to improve our participation at the Lord’s table, “that would take too much time” is not a valid objection. Will we start baptizing people by hosing them off in the parking lot, just to make it quicker and more efficient?

Take it off the clock. Give the Lord’s table the time it needs, however much time that may be.

The Table of the Lord: First suggestion

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My first suggestion: Remember that the gospel is good news. As Jesus’ closest friends went around proclaiming His death and resurrection, their emphasis was not on the tragedy of His death, but on what that sacrifice achieved. They could speak of the death of their friend and call it good news. I think we should have a similar attitude at the table of the Lord. Remember that Jesus, when He spoke of the cup, spoke not only of His blood, but of the covenant. He used words from Exodus 24, a context that tells of a joyous meal eaten with God.

Reverence and sadness are not the same thing. Raucousness and joy are not the same thing. One word frequently used in the Bible is thanksgiving; surely that should be the focus of this time.

“He is not here. He has risen!”

The Table of the Lord: When furniture gets in the way

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I honestly believe that the furniture that we use in most church buildings hinders our practice of the Lord’s Supper. This ties into the last post, since most of our furniture was inherited from other religious groups. Let me explain some of the hindrances I see:

The communion table. The standard communion table isn’t a table. It’s a modified altar. If I set down a big piece of furniture with no legs, no way to sit around it, and then told you it was my new dining room table, what would you think? I know, some modern coffee tables don’t have legs, but still, in any other context we would not call that chunk of wood a table. So how does that get in the way of our taking communion? Well, one of the basic points that I’ve come to see is that the Lord’s Supper is about the table, not the altar. The sacrifice took place on the cross; the Lord’s Supper is about the table fellowship after the sacrifice. There’s a reason why Paul calls it the table of the Lord. Yet our “table” reinforces the idea of a reenactment of Jesus’ sacrifice. [Some churches don’t have tables like that, either having real tables or nothing at all. Consider yourself fortunate. Why spend thousands of dollars on something that hinders our worship?]

Pews. Where did these come from? Some of you that are smarter than I might can fill in the gaps of history for me. Pews hinder our worship in multiple ways, but none greater than when it comes time to “gather around the Lord’s table.” It is extremely difficult to create a table atmosphere when sitting in pews. It’s extremely difficult to create an air of fellowship when sitting in pews. It’s not impossible, but it’s harder than it should be.

Those are the two main problem areas that I see. Feel free to defend our traditional furniture or to point out other hindrances that you see.

The Table of the Lord: When tradition gets in the way

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In looking at our views and teachings on the Lord’s Supper, we need to recognize another outside influence. Besides our U.S. culture, we are also affected by religious culture. The American Restoration movement was not born in a vacuum. It came out of Protestantism which in turn came from Catholicism. Ideally, all of our views came from the Bible and the Bible alone, but that’s just not the case. The fish doesn’t know that he’s wet. It’s hard to see the impact that our environment has on us.

Our assemblies betray us. So much of what we do reflects centuries of church traditions. This in and of itself is not wrong, yet its dangerous to fail to recognize the influence those traditions have had on us. The format of our assemblies, the songs that we sing, the furniture we use, the standardized communion trays… all of these things show an outside influence. Have our views toward the Lord’s Supper remained unaffected? Personally, I think not.

That influence can come from acceptance of what others have done or can come as a reaction to what they’ve done. I think that the Catholic view of the Supper as a reenactment of Christ’s sacrifice has had a strong influence on our making a funeral atmosphere the standard ambience for taking the supper. The view of the Supper as a sacrament has led many to place an emphasis on the act of taking the Supper each week, to the point that many come, take the Supper and leave; we offer Sunday night “make up” communion for those that missed Sunday morning. As for reactions, we can see that the controversies over the elements (are they literally the body and blood of Christ?) have led us to emphasize the symbolic nature of the elements.

Again, I turn to you for help on this point. How do you see us as having been influenced by the beliefs and practices of others concerning the table of the Lord?